The Scarlet Knights improved to 14-12 (4-9) last night after coming back from a 17 point deficit to beat DePaul 68-64 at Allstate Arena. Rutgers has won four out of its last five league games and two in a row including an upset of No. 8 Georgetown last weekend. Less than a month ago Rutgers fans were calling for the firing of head coach Fred Hill Jr. Now fans are scratching their heads wondering where this play was a few weeks ago and if Hill has done enough to keep his job.
Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti will have an important decision to make at season's end on whether or not to keep Hill at the helm of the program. College basketball is a game of momentum and it's easy to get caught up in the heat of a winning streak.
Rutgers would owe Hill at least $1.8 million to buy him out if Pernetti decides to let him go. Through almost four seasons, Hill is 46-72 overall and 12-53 in the Big East as the head coach of the Scarlet Knights. Over the last few seasons, Hill's team has lost to the likes of Vermont, Jackson State, Saint Peters, Lehigh and St. Bonaventure. Rutgers has not fared much better in conference play being blown out numerous times at home and on the road by league opponents.
With Rutgers playing so well lately, fans are starting to question whether or not Hill and his program are starting to turn the corner. But can one season salvage a coaches career that has been marked with embarrassing losses, a depleting fan base and six transfers, including Gregory Echenique who left midway through this season to go to Creighton?
To me, it seems like these late season heroics may be a bit too late to save Hill and his staff. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy for players like Hamady Ndiaye who have suffered throughout their collegiate career at Rutgers. It's great to see young talent like Dane Miller take the floor at the Louis Brown Athletic Center and showcase his skills in front of a national audience. But this season cannot make up for the utter disaster that has been Rutgers basketball the past few seasons.
Next year, Rutgers will be without a big man after Ndiaye graduates. With Echenique now at Creighton, it leaves Brian Okam as the only center on next year's squad. It is hard to see next year's team winning more than 12 games with such a lack of depth.
Coaching encompasses many aspects. It means recruiting Big East talent to a Big East school, keeping those players there, being a good X's and O's guy and winning games you are supposed to win while winning a few that you are not supposed to win. Hill has done very little of those things. He has brought in players like Mike Rosario and Miller, but has yet to recruit good big men to complete his teams. He has been out coached numerous times and has not won the games he is supposed to win each year. And don't forget about turning one of the greatest home venues in the country into a morgue.
Pernetti is a smart man, and he should be able to weigh out the benefits and disadvantages of keeping or getting rid of Hill. Fans should not root for Rutgers to loose in order for Hill to loose his job. If a winning record and a possible NIT berth saves Hill's job, then maybe Pernetti needs to take a deeper look into his decision making.
Fans should enjoy the recent success of the team because there hasn't been much in the past few years to cheer about. Rutgers could easily finish the season with a winning record and it would be a great way to send out a senior like Ndiaye. But when it comes down to it, the recent play of the Knights cannot make up for the play the last three seasons. Rutgers fans deserve better and it will be Pernetti's job to deliver the basketball version of Greg Schiano to Piscataway.
Rutgers has at least six games left on the season, and who knows what can happen in March. I guess that's the real beauty of college basketball.
Maybe winning now will hurt Rutgers. If the team can pull off a Georgia type miracle and make the NCAA tournament (long shot I know) then Hill would stay. If Hill remains for one more year it will mean another year of mediocrity and maybe worse than that. It could set the program back another year and just frustrate fans even more. No one is saying Hill has not given it his all, but maybe being a head coach in the best conference in the country isn't the job for him.
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